Celebrity Birthdays September 20: Sophia Loren and Kristen Johnston

Born Sophia Villani Scicolone in Rome, Italy on September 20, 1934, Sophia Loren captured the eye of filmmaker Carlo Ponti, when she was 15 years old. She would later choose to marry him over Cary Grant, who had also proposed. Under Ponti’s guidance, Loren began her more than five-decade long acting career for which she has won numerous awards and honors. Loren’s success as an international actress and her legendary beauty paired her with such leading actors as Cary Grant, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck, Marcello Mastroianni, Richard Burton and Marlon Brando among others. Some of her most memorable films include Houseboat, Arabesque, It Started in Naples, Marriage Italian-Style and Italian film Two Women, for which Loren received 22 international awards. In 1991, she was awarded an Academy Honorary Award, naming her “one of the world cinema’s treasures,” and in 1995 won the Cecil B. Demille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes. In 2011, she was honored by Hollywood in a tribute sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Loren turns 79 today. Happy birthday, Ms. Loren!

Kristen Johnston was born September 20, 1967. Though she has found celebrated success on the stage, in film and in television, she is best known for her character Sally Solomon on the successful six-season long, ‘90s comedy, Third Rock from the Sun, for which she won two Emmys. She has had recurring roles in other TV shows, such as Ugly Betty and ER, and has made many guest appearances on others, a fan favorite being her appearance in an episode of Sex and the City, entitled “Splat.” She played Lexi Featherston, an over-aged party girl who, after saying she was so bored she could die, falls out of a window and dies. In 2012, she published her first book, a memoir titled Guts: The Endless Follies and Tiny Triumphs of a Giant Disaster, in which she opens up about her years of drug addiction and alcoholism which she had kept hidden from the public, her coworkers, as well as her closest friends, and how she managed to turn her life around. She currently stars in TV Land’s comedy, The Exes, now in its third season. She also teaches acting at NYU. Johnston turns 46 today. Happy birthday, Ms. Johnston!